Pure Rigatoni Revolution – ITALY

Bonjourno Tutti,

Firstly, apologies for not getting in touch from the road, Livorno isn’t exactly free WiFi capital of Europe.

Anyway, the past couple of days have been a blast, and I’m ready to document what I can remember of it. The question is, are YOU ready? You are?!? Fantastic! (if you’re not ready, get a cup of tea, put some vibey tunes on, and continue reading at your leisure…)

Ok…

So, our oddessy began at about 6:30 am on Friday morning, I stumbled bleary eyed to PRR HQ (via starbucks) to meet up with band and crew. Greetings were exchanged and gear was loaded to gatwick airport where we boarded (just in time) our flight to Pisa.

The flight was fairly sedate, I enjoyed a whiskey and dry, along with a pipe of pringles. Manager Jonathan had a panini, he didn’t give it a great review.

We were greated in Pisa by glorious sunshine, which made a great change from the overcast skies of Reading!
After a much needed cigarette, we were whisked off to the Stadio Armando Picchi, home of AS Livorno, a Serie A football team. It was rather impressive!

It’s not every day you have a dressing room that is normally occupied by italy’s elite footballers, well it might be for our friends Placebo, who headed the bill that evening, but We all very much enjoyed the sporting novelty.

We made it to the stage to go through equipment. Placebo’s tech guys were setting up their equipment, and performing entire soundcheck for them. I made very sure Jon wasn’t getting any ideas!!

So the hours passed, emotions ran high, and I ate some pasta. soon enough, it was showtime.

During the changeover between bands, the Italian crowd were chanting ”hey! Ho! Lets go!”. As a bit of a Ramones geek, I very much enjoyed this, and treated them to a terrible chorus of Blitzkreig Bop, while line checking Jamie’s guitar, which I think they enjoyed!

So, after an intro by the Vernon Kay of Italian Radio, the band hit the stage…

They’re not a stadium rock band, this is true. However, they really rose to the occasion! Everyone rocked out hard, including a flawless set by Mr. Glover. I think the kids today describe it as ‘win’ or something. I dunno.

I think not playing a live for a couple months, and then coming back for a show of this magnitude might have been a bit of a test, but if anything, this was possibly the best show I’ve seen them play in 7 years. I’m really proud of how well the band performed.

So, the show was done – we were all pretty destroyed, but everybody stuck around to watch placebo before we all headed back to our hotel for a few drinks before much needed bed time! I think by the time I hit the sack, I’d been up for a good 21 hours. And I am a huge fan of Sleeping. Ouch.

Day 2

I awoke to find I had wasted most of the day asleep, but so had Jamie, so that made me feel marginally better.

We both had a bit of beakfast (brunch?) on our hotel room balcony, and decided to maybe go for an outing.

The rest of the band had made their way along the shoreline and walked (6 km) into the center of Livorno, so Jamie and I hailed a cab and caught them up, following a few beers and slices of Italian delicacies, Jon, Paul, and Steve met us in a fine pizzeria, which became our base for the afternoon. Boys on tour indeed.

We then headed to another vibey little place where we enjoyed the Springfield delicacy of DUFF BEER! Fantastic! It was actually really tasty.

Then, Jon treated us to a go on a teletubbies kiddy ride outside said vibey bar. Apparently, it was the best Euro he’d ever spent. (video coming shortly!)

We headed back to the stadium to meet up with Chloë, who had missed out on the teletubbies ride. Needless to say, she was mortified.

So, with the gang back together, we settled in for an evening of epic proportions…

Everyone who worked for italia wave was very nice. A few people stopped to ask for photos, which was odd. it then dawned on me that they thought I was the guy from weezer.

We watched Kraftwerk – they were amazing. Totally blew everyone’s minds. Mesmerizing to watch, which I didn’t expect when I first saw 4 german dudes standing motionless in front of casios. Bloody awesome.

Then it all got a bit hazy…

Arm Wrestling:
This was a great idea.
The reigning PRR tour champion is none other than captain Jodper Jon Courtney himself, beating off strong competition from Platinum Paul Glover. Everybody beat me (except Chloe, and Jamie who was MIA.)

Dance Off:
NO idea who won this, but great shapes were thrown by Paul and Chloë, Jon and I made up the numbers, (Jamie was still MIA)

It didn’t help that the festival was sponsered by red bull. 15+ beers and a fridge of free red bull is enough to turn anyone madder than a sack of badgers.

I’d like to take this opportunity to apologise to the lovely ladies who drove me home, for shouting the only Italian words I knew at them (salad, chicken, and erm…merry christmas). I’m pretty sure I acted as a great ambassador (geddit?) for the UK. Again, red bull and peroni combo is to blame.

I awoke the next morning feeling like utter shit. Can’t imagine why, I felt awesome when I passed out.

Paul called me and told me I was 2 minutes away from missing out on breakfast. I’ve never left a hotel room so quickly (Well, there was this ONE time…).

Went to breakfast with the thought that I’d feel way better after 4 crossaints and a cup of tea. I did – so good in fact, I fancied some music and cigarettes.

I walked (shirtless) onto the balcony and sparked up, with my iPod on, listening to this band called dream evil (Swedish cheesy power metal about slaying dragons), really getting into it, air guitar was performed…

After my second solo, I kinda just felt…wrong. I opened my eyes to find that below me were a group of elderly Italian couples pointing at me and exclaiming to eachother that I was some kind of ‘mamaluke’. Fuck knows what that means…

Anyway, I managed to resurrect Jamie (who was a sorry state), just in time for us to get to the airport.

We made the plane (again, only just!) and made our way safely back to London. It would’ve been rude not to have had another whiskey and dry wouldn’t it?!?

It Was A Great Weekend.

See You Soon!

Nikos
x

Right, have some pictures…